Notes:
Though written on the more ecological tip, this song’s closing message is universal and timely: the time to act is now and all you need to do is get up and try. It also won Best Hard Rock Performance at that year’s Grammys. “A rock group consisting entirely of black members wasn’t supposed to be an issue and, in fact, could only be an issue in a culture that had collectively suppressed the music’s black roots.” (Reyes-Kulkarni, S., Diffuser, Aug. 28, 2015)
Lyrics:
Time’s up, the rivers have no life
Time’s up, the world is full of strife
Time’s up, the sky is falling
Time’s up, the Lord is calling
How you gonna stop the clock
When the well runs dry
All the rivers have died
Moment by moment, day by day
The world is just slipping away
Your future won’t save your past
The time is now, it won’t last
The time is nigh
Time to do-or-die
Time waits for no one
If you want to go on
Leave me something to grow on
The forests, the trees, the rivers, the seas
All die of this disease
Time ain’t on your side
Don’t sit idly by
You’ve just got to try
—
‘Protest 100’s mission is two-fold: dispelling the myth that heavy metal is a brainless, socially unaware music genre, and raising awareness of the issues facing our country in the Nov. 3, 2020 election. The path won’t be exclusively metal—some punk and rap and other stuff will be in here too, including the classics—and is not a ranking. All songs are songs I’ve heard while putting this list together, ordered in a manner designed to entertain and educate.
Notes:
Though better known for such sophomoric gems as ‘Beef Boloney’ and ‘Gimme Some Action,’ as well as pissing everyone they could off, both onstage and in-person, there is no denying ‘Let’s Have A War’ (to ‘jack up the Dow Jones…we can blame it on the middle class!’) as documentation of who’s behind our conflicts and who suffers.
Excerpt from ‘Unreality’ — “Fuck it. Let’s just bliss out.”
Lyics:
There’s so many of us
There’s so many of us
There’s so many
There’s so many of us
There’s so many of us
There’s so many [Repeat: x2]
Let’s have a war
So you can go and die!
Let’s have a war!
We could all use the money!
Let’s have a war!
We need the space!
Let’s have a war!
Clean out this place!
It already started in the city!
Suburbia will be just as easy!
There’s so many of us
There’s so many of us
There’s so many
There’s so many of us
There’s so many of us
There’s so many [Repeat: x2]
Let’s have a war!
Jack up the Dow Jones!
Let’s have a war!
It can start in New Jersey!
Let’s have a war!
Blame it on the middle-class!
Let’s have a war!
We’re like rats in a cage!
It already started in the city!
Suburbia will be just as easy!
There’s so many of us
There’s so many of us
There’s so many
There’s so many of us
There’s so many of us
There’s so many [Repeat: x2]
Let’s have a war!
Sell the rights to the networks!
Let’s have a war!
Let our wallets get fat like last time!
Let’s have a war!
Give guns to the queers!
Let’s have a war!
The enemy’s within!
It already started in the city!
Suburbia will be just as easy!
There’s so many of us
There’s so many of us
There’s so many
There’s so many of us
There’s so many of us
There’s so many [Repeat: x2]
There’s so many of us
There’s so many of us
There’s so many
There’s so many of us
There’s so many of us
There’s so many [Repeat: x2]
—
‘Protest 100’s mission is two-fold: dispelling the myth that heavy metal is a brainless, socially unaware music genre, and raising awareness of the issues facing our country in the Nov. 3, 2020 election. The path won’t be exclusively metal—some punk and rap and other stuff will be in here too, including the classics—and is not a ranking. All songs are songs I’ve heard while putting this list together, ordered in a manner designed to entertain and educate.
Album: Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part 1
Producer: Ray Davies
Label: Reprise
Year: 1970
Notes:
This lament of the modern world’s man-made problems isn’t so much a call to arms as a contemplation of flight. Its laundry list of maladies, however, is coupled with an inescapably catchy chorus, keeping you rooted on the spot. Have some fun while the world burns! It’s not like you’ve got somewhere else to be.
Excerpt from ‘Unreality’ — “His host, however, sprang upright, mouth agape and eyes agog.”
Lyrics:
I think I’m sophisticated
‘Cause I’m living my life like a good homosapien
But all around me, everybody’s multiplying
And they’re walking round like flies man
So I’m no better than the animals sitting in their cages
In the zoo man
Because compared to the flowers and the birds and the trees
I am an Apeman
I think I’m so educated and I’m so civilized
‘Cause I’m a strict vegetarian
But with the over-population and inflation and starvation
And the crazy politicians
I don’t feel safe in this world no more
I don’t want to die in a nuclear war
I want to sail away to a distant shore
And make like an Apeman
I’m an Apeman, I’m an Ape Apeman
No, I’m an Apeman
Well, I’m a King Kong man, I’m a Voo-Doo man
No, I’m an Apeman
‘Cause compared to the sun that sits in the sky
Compared to the clouds as they roll by
Compared to the bugs and the spiders and flies
I am an Apeman
I’m an Apeman, I’m an Ape Apeman
No, I’m an Apeman
Well, I’m a King Kong man, I’m a Voo-Doo man
No, I’m an Apeman
I don’t feel safe in this world no more
I don’t want to die in a nuclear war
I want to sail away to a distant shore
And make like an Apeman
—
‘Protest 100’s mission is two-fold: dispelling the myth that heavy metal is a brainless, socially unaware music genre, and raising awareness of the issues facing our country in the Nov. 3, 2020 election. The path won’t be exclusively metal—some punk and rap and other stuff will be in here too, including the classics—and is not a ranking. All songs are songs I’ve heard while putting this list together, ordered in a manner designed to entertain and educate.
Notes:
I hadn’t paid a second’s worth of attention to this band until I stumbled upon a Facebook Live (while it was happening) of them performing on a set by themselves in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. The power was palpable. Formed from the remnants of three other LA-area bands, Fever 333 played its first show in 2017 in the back of a moving truck parked at a donut shop in Inglewood. The 333 in the band’s name represents the three core views the three-piece band espouses: Community, Charity, and Change. The band’s logo is an homage to the Black Panther Party.
Lyrics:
We are the melanin felons
We are the product of
Plunder and policy that you gotta love
Casinos, amigos on forty acres, uh
They built this shit on our backs
Made an America
Living in terror all while they terrorise
Cover your eyes ’cause people terrified
Fuck all the promises you were promised ’cause
They’re cutting your oxygen ’til you paralysed
Where we land is where we fall (Made an America)
All for one and none for all (Made an America)
No stars dead bodies on the boulevard
Cop cars, true killers, and they still at large
Where we land is where we fall (Made an America)
Home of the big bodies and wide blocks
The government giving ghettos that crack rock
Making quotas off baking soda and mass shock
This ain’t a theory, I saw it happen on my block
The homie Hector selling heroin from nine to five
My brother’s burning down the block when Rodney almost died
We’re giving thanks for measles, blankets, and genocide
They call it “cleaning up the streets”, we call it “homicide”
Where we land is where we fall (Made an America)
All for one and none for all (Made an America)
No stars dead bodies on the boulevard
Cop cars, true killers, and they still at large
Where we land is where we fall (Made an America)
Made an America, we made an America
Made an America, we made an America
Made an America, we made an America
Made an America, we made an America
Ah, oh
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Alright
You built this on our backs
Okay
Show ’em who we is
Where we land is where we fall (Made an America)
All for one and none for all (Made an America)
No stars dead bodies on the boulevard
Cop cars, true killers, and they still at large
Where we land is where we fall (Made an America)
Made an America, we made an America
Made an America, we made an America
—
‘Protest 100’s mission is two-fold: dispelling the myth that heavy metal is a brainless, socially unaware music genre, and raising awareness of the issues facing our country in the Nov. 3, 2020 election. The path won’t be exclusively metal—some punk and rap and other stuff will be in here too, including the classics—and is not a ranking. All songs are songs I’ve heard while putting this list together, ordered in a manner designed to entertain and educate.
Notes:
With samples ripped straight from both the civil rights movement and James Brown, an inescapable head-nodder of a beat, and lyrics that were impossible to misinterpret, ‘Fight The Power’ stands as one of the high-water marks of protest through music. The song’s genesis lies in a meeting between PE and Spike Lee, called by the latter to find a musical embodiment of late-80s racial tension in Brooklyn for his feature directorial debut, ‘Do The Right Thing.’
Excerpt from ‘Unreality’
“The government was pleased to have such a powerful ally in its fight against social evils.”
Lyrics:
Yet our best trained, best educated, best equipped, best prepared troops refuse to fight
As a matter of fact, it’s safe to say that they would rather switch than fight
1989 the number another summer (get down)
Sound of the funky drummer
Music hitting your heart ’cause I know you got soul
(Brothers and sisters, hey)
Listen if you’re missing y’all
Swinging while I’m singing
Giving whatcha getting
Knowing what I know
While the Black bands sweatin’
And the rhythm rhymes rollin’
Got to give us what we want (uh)
Gotta give us what we need (hey)
Our freedom of speech is freedom or death
We got to fight the powers that be
Lemme hear you say
Fight the power (lemme hear you say)
Fight the power
Fight the power
Fight the power
Fight the power
Fight the power
Fight the power
We’ve got to fight the powers that be
As the rhythm designed to bounce
What counts is that the rhymes
Designed to fill your mind
Now that you’ve realized the pride’s arrived
We got to pump the stuff to make us tough
From the heart
It’s a start, a work of art
To revolutionize make a change nothing’s strange
People, people we are the same
No we’re not the same
‘Cause we don’t know the game
What we need is awareness, we can’t get careless
You say what is this?
My beloved let’s get down to business
Mental self defensive fitness
(Yo) bum rush the show
You gotta go for what you know
To make everybody see, in order to fight the powers that be
Lemme hear you say
Fight the power (lemme hear you say)
Fight the power
Fight the power
Fight the power
Fight the power
Fight the power
Fight the power
We’ve got to fight the powers that be
Fight the power (lemme hear you say)
Fight the power
Fight the power
Fight the power
Fight the power
Fight the power
We’ve got to fight the powers that be
Elvis was a hero to most but he
Elvis was a hero to most
Elvis was a hero to most
But he never meant shit to me you see
Straight up racist that sucker was
Simple and plain
Mother fuck him and John Wayne
‘Cause I’m Black and I’m proud
I’m ready and hyped plus I’m amped
Most of my heroes don’t appear on no stamps
Sample a look back you look and find
Nothing but rednecks for four hundred years if you check
Don’t worry be happy
Was a number one jam
Damn if I say it you can slap me right here
(Get it) let’s get this party started right
Right on, c’mon
What we got to say (yeah)
Power to the people no delay
Make everybody see
In order to fight the powers that be
Fight the power
Fight the power
Fight the power
Fight the power
We’ve got to fight the powers that be
What have we got to say? (yeah)
Fight the power (yeah, yeah, yeah)
What have we got to say? (yeah)
Fight the power (come on)
What have we got to say? (yeah)
Fight the power (yeah, yeah, yeah)
What have we got to say? (yeah)
Fight the power (come on)
Yo check this out man
OK talk to me about the future of Public Enemy
The future of Public Enemy gotta
—
‘Protest 100’s mission is two-fold: dispelling the myth that heavy metal is a brainless, socially unaware music genre, and raising awareness of the issues facing our country in the Nov. 3, 2020 election. The path won’t be exclusively metal—some punk and rap and other stuff will be in here too, including the classics—and is not a ranking. All songs are songs I’ve heard while putting this list together, ordered in a manner designed to entertain and educate.
Notes:
This song is steeped deep in the class inequalities bared by the 1992 riots in the band’s hometown of Los Angeles. The message: stop pointing your anger at each other, start pointing it at the people running the show. And don’t forget Black Panther Fred Hampton’s death at the hands of the FBI. Just a quiet peaceful dance!
Lyrics:
Yeah I’m rollin’ down Rodeo wit a shotgun
These people ain’t seen a brown skin man
Since their grandparents bought one
So now I’m rollin’ down Rodeo wit a shotgun
These people ain’t seen a brown skin man
Since their grandparents bought one
So now I’m rollin’ down Rodeo wit a shotgun
Bangin’ this bolo tight on this solo flight can’t fight alone
Funk tha track my verbs fly like tha family stone
Tha pen devils set that stage for tha war at home
Locked wit out a wage ya standin’ in tha drop zone
The clockers born starin’ at an empty plate
Momma’s torn hands cover her sunken face
We hungry but them belly full
The structure is set ya neva change it with a ballot pull
In tha ruins there’s a network for tha toxic rock
School yard ta precinct, suburb ta project block
Bosses broke south for new flesh and a factory floor
The remains left chained to the powder war
Can’t waste a day when the night brings a hearse
So make a move and plead the fifth ’cause ya can’t plead the first
Can’t waste a day when the night brings a hearse
So now I’m rollin’ down Rodeo wit a shotgun
These people ain’t seen a brown skin man
Since their grandparents bought one
Yes I’m rollin’ down Rodeo wit a shotgun
These people ain’t seen a brown skin man
Since their grandparents bought one
So now I’m rollin’ down Rodeo wit a shotgun
Bare witness to tha sickest shot while suckas get romantic
They ain’t gonna send us campin’ like they did my man Fred Hampton
Still we lampin’ still clockin’ dirt for our sweat A ballots dead so a bullet’s what I get A thousand years they had tha tools
We should be takin’ ’em
Fuck tha G-ride I want the machines that are makin’ em Our target straight wit a room full of armed pawn to Off tha kings out tha west side at dawn
Can’t waste a day when the night brings a hearse
Make a move and plead the fifth ’cause ya can’t plead the first
Can’t waste a day when the night brings a hearse So now I’m rollin’ down Rodeo wit a shotgun These people ain’t seen a brown skin man
Since their grandparents bought one
Yeah I’m rollin’ down Rodeo wit a shotgun
These people ain’t seen a brown skin man
Since their grandparents bought one
Yeah I’m rollin’ down Rodeo wit a shotgun
The rungs torn from the ladder can’t reach the tumour One god, one market, one truth, one consumer
Just a quiet peaceful dance!
Just a quiet peaceful dance!
Just a quiet peaceful dance! Just a quiet peaceful dance!
Just a quiet peaceful dance for the things we’ll never have Just a quiet peaceful dance for the things we don’t have
—
‘Protest 100’s mission is two-fold: dispelling the myth that heavy metal is a brainless, socially unaware music genre, and raising awareness of the issues facing our country in the Nov. 3, 2020 election. The path won’t be exclusively metal—some punk and rap and other stuff will be in here too, including the classics—and is not a ranking. All songs are songs I’ve heard while putting this list together, ordered in a manner designed to entertain and educate.
Chris Smith, Author 